Cracked.com has a fine article driving home the point that politics these days really aren’t much stupider than they always have been. Five Presidential Elections Even Dumber Than This One. The abbreviated list:
#5 Jefferson v. Adams (1800): Jefferson will bring prostitutes into the White House and wants murder and robbery taught in the schools. Adams will attack France.
#4 J.Q. Adams v. Jackson (1828): Jackson executed soldiers for no reason, his mom was a prostitute and his dad was a mulatto, and his wife is a bigamist.
#3 William Henry Harrison v. Van Buren (1840): Van Buren is an elitist who likes to bathe in the White House. Harrison, despite the mansion and whatnot, was a log cabin and hard cider kind of guy.
#2 Hayes v. Tilden (1876): Screw campaigning, we’ll just steal the damn thing. Hayes elected in the most corrupt election to date.
#1 James G. Blaine, “Continental Liar from the State of Maine” v. Grover “Ma, Ma, Where’s My Pa? Going to the White House, Ha, Ha, Ha” Cleveland. The campaign slogans pretty much say it all.
We think all of this is new but as you show it’s not. One of my favorites is the 1864 election. Many thought there shouldn’t even be an election since we were in the middle of the civil war. The Democrats nominated General McClellan on a platform of ending the war and letting the South goes its own way. The consensus among the political pundits was that because the Union army had been so mismanaged (largely by McClellan, incidentally) the war weary country would give in to the cut-and-run Democrats. The election was full of rumors about Lincoln’s parentage including that he was a bastard with a black parent. (Karl Rove would have been proud.)They ever so subtlely referred to him as the original gorilla, buffoon, old scoundrel, field-butcher, liar, despot, etc.. Mary Lincoln, who had relatives fighting for the South, was accused of treason. There was a big voter registration drive among the troops in the field that was fought in the courts. In Indiana Governor Morton led the effort but was not able to get approval from the Democrat controlled state legislature to allow counting the absentee soldier votes. But enough states did count them and it was the votes of those troops that overwhelmingly re-elected Lincoln. It helps to put the politics into the historical perspective. There have always been people who look to the low road because it’s the only thing they understand.
And now the ad that if you elect Obama there will be a terrorist attack in less than six months-thanks Joe for saying those words. But with McCain it won’t happen!
About a billion dollars spent on the campaigns – and these are the candidates we have.
“Let both these asses be set to grind corn.”
Was told again today, October 26, that Obama is an Arab and that this is why I shouldn’t vote for him.
eh.. too late. I already voted at Purdue on Tuesday.. if I’d only known….